The City of Lost Intentions: A Guide for the Artistically Waylaid

by A. Valliard

Being a Compendium of Fallibility, a Bestiary of Artistic Fears and Foibles, and an unhelpful Travel Guide to the City of Lost Intentions, with particular notice paid to its denizens - the transmogrified souls of self-damned artists - for the benefit of the prospective resident as they negotiate the underworld metropolis in the dubious company of Montcorbier, a disaffected psychopomp.



A baroque phantasmagoria of an imaginary hell, passing through its theatres, gilded grottoes, and stagnant, underground seas, from the Temple of Fo-Elpmet-Eht to the Hoarse Latitudes, with each chapter devoted to a different crime against art, the book takes the form of a collection of vignettes of the infernal citizens, linked by the erratic actions of the dissipated guide, Montcorbier, and the increasingly despairing and cryptic interjections of an unknown narrator who derails the careful catalogue of the city's populace with complaints about the mysterious and despised Architect.



Drawn from hundreds of interviews and inebriated discussions with actors, painters, writers, directors, musicians, cabaret performers, glassblowers, fashion designers, photographers, philosophers, stand-up comics, and indeed anyone of a creative bent, over nine countries and ten years, concerning ways in which the artist might betray their art, The City of Lost Intentions is a tragicomical fairy tale of the tyranny of 'the Vision'.



An absurdist handbook for all waylaid artists and self-saboteurs.

Genres: Fantasy

270 pages, Paperback

Published May 7, 2024

Reviews

[Ruby Ishinjerro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary book, in concept and delivery, of the artist in peril of losing their artistic vision being guided through a bizarre underworld of Eternal Carnations, which are those artists (painters, writers, musicians, dancers, sculptors, cartoonists) who ended up in the City of Lost Intentions in a caricature of their particular betrayal.
Like a guide book it is broken into multiple sections, with a particular Carnation -- the Louche Cannon, the Underminers, the Blackwicks, the Misery Makars, the Ibid & Rarefied, the sCowl, the Bijoufly -- occupying usually one page, grouped into 10 sections headed the Prevaricators, Pifflers, Panbacchanals and so on.
The brief Preamble explains that they are here in the City through losing their original artistic vision by Avoidance, Neglect, Abandonment etc.
Guiding the prospective resident is Montcorbier, 'a disaffected psychopomp', who has a certain ambivalence in his relation to the City's inhabitants, as we find out.
I bought the paperback edition and love the feel of it as I turn the cream-coloured pages, dipping here and there into the description of various Creations with their fantastic imagery and wry, subtle, epigrammatic last sentences.
It is impossible to resist hunting for the Creation most resembling oneself.
Ink blots and ornate drop-caps add to the pleasure and sensation of reading a book that is timeless.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

*rushes to finish my multiple first drafts out of sheer terror after reading this*

No, but I absolutely LOVED this and I'm so glad I stumbled upon it at my local library. I want this to be given to Extension English students. I want it to be made into a film. I want to eat this book. The aesthetic is incredible - imagine Alice in Wonderland meets The Wizard of Oz, by way of Dante's Divine Comedy, and illustrated by Dali. I'm such a sucker for weird shit, and this totally hit the mark.

The third act was maybe a little long, but only because I needed answers and I am impatient. I want to see this adapted into a film in the veins of The Fall (2008), or The Princess Bride, or even as an epic stop motion animation using the author's illustrations and art.
Anyway, I need my own copy of this so I can annotate it and lend it to everyone I know (but especially the authors).

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most consistently inventive and clever books I've read in ages. Your tourists' guide to a netherworld of endless artistic failure and pretension awaits.

[Noir Novels · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75/5 stars

This little book knows how to take a concept and run with it! Some lovely writing and an intriguing Dante-like journey, but this is not necessarily an easy read - it forces you to take your time with it which I did feel at times. So, if you like abstract fantastical concepts and thrive off verbosity I’d recommend checking this one out!

[Toby Petch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful undertaking of the rarest variety, brave, influential, giving all and any of us who is, dreams of being or would even cherish the time to be creative a little hope, in a world that revolves around money, social status and so called success, over any kind of real happiness, or god forbid - playfulness. A world that would rather criticise the rare few that have such success in an artistic career at the faintest glimmer of actual creative exploration that it took to discover this thing that we love so much - or to present something outside of what we expect from them for our money. This is an important book, reflecting on the importance of constant exploration and fearless creativity, which is becoming more and more rare in a world that destroys anyone that dares to attempt to create, as it reflects our own inner most fears of failure, we ourselves would never succeed and so never, ever would we dare to simply try. Failure being the key to all success.